SFPUC president stepping down to pivot to PACs as conflict questions arise

Mayor Jean Quan listens as Vince Courtney speaks during a rally against the recall at the Laborer's Local 304 in Oakland, Calif., Friday, January 13, 2012.

Photo: Sarah Rice / Special to The Chronicle 2012

Vince Courtney is resigning his post as president of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to expand his role as an operative for political action committees.

Courtney sent his resignation letter to Sean Elsbernd, Mayor London Breed’s chief of staff, on Jan. 23, according to a copy of the correspondence obtained by The Chronicle.

In it, Courtney said he had “agreed to increase my participation in political activities, including expansion of my role as principal officer of various political action committees, which may distract from, or conflict with my responsibilities” at the SFPUC.

Courtney’s decision is apparently predicated on a batch of local regulations that went into effect last year that would prohibit him from raising money for political candidates while working as an SFPUC commissioner.

Courtney, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment, will officially step down from the commission on Feb. 13, according to his letter. His term would have expired in August 2020, and the mayor’s office has already begun searching for his replacement. Courtney was first appointed to the commission by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2010 and was reappointed twice by Mayor Ed Lee.

Last year, Courtney also appears to have been involved in another potential conflict of interest involving his commission position when he embedded himself in the middle of a messy personnel matter at the SFPUC. City law prohibits commissioners like Courtney from involving themselves in hiring and firing decisions.

As to his resignation, local ethics regulations that went into effect last July are intended to prohibit people appointed to city commissions — like the SFPUC — from raising money for the candidates or offices that appoint them.

Courtney works as a political director at Local 261, a construction and general laborers union. But he’s also an officer for Progress San Francisco, a PAC that has spent substantial sums of money — raised largely from individuals and organizations tied to the technology and real estate industries — for moderate candidates and causes in city races.

During the mayor’s race last spring, tech investor and and political donor Ron Conway told associates in an email that Progress SF was “the most (important)” political effort that they could donate to, in part because it would “contribute to other 100 percent positive independent expenditure committees in support of London Breed for mayor.”

Separately, over the course of several months last year, Courtney appears to have entangled himself in an SFPUC personnel issue, despite being told by senior city human-resources officials on multiple occasions that his involvement created a conflict of interest.

A batch of redacted emails and text messages brought to light as part of a public records request show Courtney upset over an apparent breakdown in hiring protocol involving a member of Local 261.

According to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel matters, Courtney was attempting to get an SFPUC gardener fired after it became known that the gardener was hired despite his being released from a gardener apprenticeship program administered by Public Works.

On Feb. 22, Micki Callahan, director of the city’s Human Resources Department, wrote to Courtney saying that, “given your role as a commissioner, you should not be involved in personnel decisions at PUC. Seems like it presents (an) obvious conflict.” Callahan then asked if another Local 261 official could handle the issue.

That same day, Cindy Charan, the SFPUC’s former human resources director, wrote to Courtney saying that “it appears that your request presents a conflict of interest with your role as a commissioner.”

Dominic Fracassa covers San Francisco City Hall for The Chronicle. He previously worked as a reporter and editor for the Daily Journal, a legal affairs newspaper. He started in news in his home state of Michigan, where he worked as a news director of 103.9 WLEN.